Politicians a no-show at ridings meeting

Cambridge Times

I was quite surprised to read statements of concern in the Cambridge Times from Mayor Doug Craig, MP Gary Goodyear and MPP Rob Leone about proposals for our federal representation, currently under review by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario.

I was surprised because none of the three were present at the public hearing held by Commission in Cambridge on Tuesday, Nov. 20.

In fact, there were no elected representatives at all to advocate for fair representation of Cambridge residents in the House of Commons.

Nearly every other federal district in the area had representatives speaking on behalf of their residents – Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy was there, as was Waterloo Region Chair Ken Seiling, Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr, North Dumfries Mayor Rob Deutschmann, Brant County Mayor Ron Eddy, and municipal councillors from Wilmot, Wellesley and Woolwhich townships, Wellington County, Perth County and others.

Residents from as far away as Georgetown, St. Jacobs and Stratford, as well as many from local townships, made the trip Cambridge to have their views heard on this vital piece of the democracy puzzle.

It is an understatement to say that I was disappointed that there were no official representatives speaking on behalf of the people of Cambridge.

Under the most recent proposal, the new riding of Cambridge, matching exactly the municipal boundary of the city, would have the second-largest population in the province, making us among the least fairly represented.

How is it that I know Cambridge was left without official representation at the commission hearing? I know because I was there – the lone voice from Cambridge.

I took the time to not only attend the hearing, but to offer Justice Valin and the other commissioners my own suggestions as to how Cambridge and North Dumfries could be more fairly represented in the jigsaw that is our electoral map.

The comments from Craig, Goodyear and Leone that appeared in your article ring a little hollow given that not one of them, nor any of our municipal representatives, took the time to actually participate in the process that will determine our federal representation for the next decade.

We are privileged in Canada to have an electoral redistribution process that is not politically driven.

However, for our non-partisan system to work well, it is necessary that our communities and their leaders, including our elected representatives, participate in the process.

Cambridge did a poor job of that and if the current proposal stands and we end up with a federal riding 20 per cent over the threshold and climbing, we will have no-one to blame but ourselves.